Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has signalled that his country could not survive beyond November if it isn't granted the next tranche of bailout aid.

Samaras highlighted that the most important thing for Greece is liquidity and underlined the necessity of the international financing.

When questioned in the Handelsblatt interview how long Athens could survive without additional help he answered: "Until the end of November, then the cash box will be empty."

Samaras also felt that the European Central Bank (ECB) could help out by accepting lower interest rates on Greek bonds and rolling over the debt at maturity. However, ECB President Mario Draghi ruled out the idea, because he considers it to be "monetary financing".

In an International Herald Tribune conference held in Paris, Samaras also warned that a Greek exit from the euro would be "disastrous" for the Eurozone and could slash the Greek standard of living by up to 70%.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble gave some show of support stating that countries with problems should be allowed more time to reform but he did lash out at Greece by stating that all the other Eurozone states had made good progress on their austerity measures. He did however admit that Athens is in a "difficult situation".

JM

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